SM-Urdaneta Expands to 3rd Floor as She Thrives vs. Other SMs

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

URDANETA, Pangasinan – Among the three SM shopping malls in the gargantuan province’s Pangasinan, the SM Prime owned giant retail store here is more profitable than those in Rosales town and Dagupan City thus its expansion to third floor.

“It’s because of the location,” SM regional public relations manager Kristine Joy Santiago told this newspaper about the giant retail store being ensconced in the densely populated Urdaneta City and the burgeoning demography of the 5^th Congressional District that composed of eight towns and one city.

The new floor that opened to the public last Friday hosts the food court, wellness center, Our Home, Manila Bank, Philippine Statistics Authority, The Event Center, Blade, Paw Park, All About Baking, LBC, Photo Line, Xo, Huawei, Acer, Everything but Cheese, SM Snack Time, Serom Hair, and other commercial stalls.

Because of these new stores hosted by SM-Urdaneta Central more that 800 residents of the province have been employed.

SM Urdaneta Central Manager Abraham Malicdem told media men the construction of the third level was planned as early as 2018 but it was disrupted by the lethal pandemic’s Corona Virus Disease- 2019 (Covid-19).

Santiago cited this writer that the construction of the bigger SM in the province located at Barangay Tambac in Dagupan City will push through.

The proposed mall can be at par with SM City in Baguio City. The latter is the 23rd largest shopping mall in the Philippines. At a floor area of 176,073 m², it is the largest shopping mall in the North Luzon Region.

As of April 2022, SM Prime has 79 malls located across the country and 24 more scheduled to be opened for an eventual total of 106 malls. It also has seven malls in China, including SM Tianjin which is the second largest in the world in terms of gross leasable area. SM Supermalls has become one of the biggest mall operators in Southeast Asia. Combined, the company has about 9.24 million square meters of gross floor area (GFA). It has 17,230 tenants in the Philippines and 1,867 tenants in China.